The Club World Cup by numbers: attendances, heat and head-to-heads | Club World Cup 2025

The group phase and the last-16 of the Club World Cup is not lacking in scenarios, ranging from the oppressive heat which had an impact on several games during the tournament at low frequentations, to questions on the field, with various confederations competing in the official club competition. Here are some points to retain data surrounding these problems, such as gathered by the Guardian.

Presence

The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, guaranteed a closed window opener. He also applied that, taking into account the solid attendance figures observed during friendly games played by European teams in the United States, a competition tournament with a large price price and a brand of “World Cup” would be an easy way to attract huge crowds to stadiums across the country. The reality has proven to be a little more nuanced. The official frequentation figures themselves were sufficiently solid, with an average of around 35,000 per game during the group phase. This represents around 12,000 more than the average draw for the football season of major leagues in 2024, in the same range as the most recent average of the Premier League season (just over 40,000), and much less than recent World Cups (Qatar 2022 had an average attendance of just over 53,000).

If you watched these matches, there is a good chance that you have noticed the empty seats. There were many – about 1.5 m, assuming that each stadium put all their seats available until the end of the last 16. These seats were fixed against total official attendance of just over 2 million (2,010,425, to be exact). Most of the sites in question are extremely important to all standard, generally with capacities of more than 60,000. In the end, the group phase in the world of clubs and the last 16 presented presences which have been, on average, using only 51% of the capacity of a given stadium.

It is not a question of minimizing the fantastic environments that have been created in these places of passionate and competent fans, and that does not mean to ignore the most loaded moments of the tournament. In total, 11 of the 56 games in the group phase and the last 16 used more than 90% of the capacity of a stadium, with more than half of the devices (six) which take place at the Hard Rock stadium in Miami. But in the same way, eight games presented participations of less than 30% of the capacity of a stadium, including the Fluminense-Inter-16 match in Charlotte, with 14 games drawing less than 20,000 spectators.

It is believed that the kick -off times have something to do with the games that fought at the door, and the data retreat this theory, although with different sample sample. A total of 41 of the group’s 56 games and the last 16 games took place either during the working day (from noon to 5 p.m., local time to kick off, Monday to Friday) or during a school evening (launch from 6 p.m. or later from Sunday to Thursday). These matches had average participations of around 33,000. The figures for weekend matches are much higher.

Heat

This tournament, like all sporting events organized in the United States in recent times, has had a lot of high temperatures to manage. When a heat dome has descended in the east of the United States in the middle of the group phase, these already unusual noon kicks have become dangerous.

However, thanks to fresh temperatures elsewhere, namely in Seattle and Pasadena, the average temperature during the group’s group phase and the last last was not too bad: 81F / 27C, with an average dew point (the simplest / easiest way to measure what humidity resembles) of 65F / 18C, which the American national meteorological service defines as “notable, but most for the most. That said, 18 of the 48 games in the group phase and half of the last 16 games featured dew points out of 70F / 21C – “very uncomfortable” – with six of those who are “oppressive” on the NWS scale.

The average heat index for the tournament was 85F / 30C. The median heat index, which reduces the impact of the coolest and hottest games in the tournament, is 90F / 32C. In short: it was really hot.

The worst place to play in terms of heat was Washington DC, which experienced a medium -time heat index of 98F / 36C, with an average dew point in the “very uncomfortable” beach. Nashville and Cincinnati dragged just behind DC with similar figures.

Among the touched teams, the poor town of Auckland made a harsh blow. In addition to being the only semi-pro team in a global elite tournament, the New Zealandian outfit also experienced the worst heat of their three group games, on average a game temperature of 85F / 30C, a heat index of 96F / 36C and a dew point of 74F / 24C, on the edge of the “oppressive” territory. Al-Hilal takes place just behind despite an additional match to their credit, which could have reduced their average.

Confederation against Confederation

The bloating of the Club World Cup received a good share of criticism, but one of the small joys of the format was to see how the teams of different confederations clashed against each other. Indeed, he made the club World Cup a bit like the NCAA basketball tournament, where team performance can be taken, fairly or unfairly, as a referendum on the force of the conference from which they qualified.

There is no doubt that the club’s football electricity centers are in Europe and South America. But one of the scenarios of this tournament was the strength of the South American teams, in particular the Brazilian teams. This feeling is supported by the data. In the group phase and in the last 16, Conmebol teams have won a victory or a draw in 77% of their games, the best brand of this type at this stage of the tournament (UEFA was second with 75%, although this figure was probably injured by the numerous clashes of the UEFA V UEFA which populated the tournament).

The number of UEFA teams in the competition allowed all other Confederation to have several shots to beat them in the group stage. Most did not do it. In total, UEFA appreciated a record for victories against each Confederation. Conmebol got closer to the breakdown of this, going 3-3-4 against the European opposition. Concacaf, for its part, went 1-1-7 against the UEFA teams. The Confederation of Asian Football went 1-2-4, the only victory being the upheaval of Al-Hilal with regard to Manchester City. The CAF went 0-1-4. Oceania, represented by Auckland City, has lost the two attempts to beat UEFA competition easily.